“Aravot” writes that political blocs and coalitions in Armenia collapse due to lack of not only ideological but also ‘tactical’ cohesion. The paper mentions the joint election effort by the Heritage and Free Democrats parties as the latest example of this reality: “Before the latest parliamentary elections Heritage made an apparent mistake by including Free Democrats and so-called “public sector” representatives in its list of candidates… As a result, the lawmakers who worked effectively in the previous parliament did not become members of the new National Assembly, giving their seats to the Free Democrats, who, while being very respectable people, are not just the Heritage type of lawmakers.”

“Chorrord Inknishkhanutyun” suggests that what President Serzh Sarkisian originally designed as a publicity stunt when he initiated a clampdown on government corruption is now turning against his own interests. “This ‘struggle’ is getting out of control and starts working against Sarkisian himself. The reason is very clear. No matter how hard Sarkisian is trying to present it as crimes committed by separate senior officials, it is still impossible to hide the reality. The analysis of the revealed cases shows that almost the entire government system has been involved in them.”

“Hayots Ashkhar” takes a different view on the same issue. The pro-establishment paper rebukes those who regard the efforts of the Sarkisian administration to expose corruption in the government sector as publicity stunts or pre-election gimmicks: “The statements by the head of state can be regarded as propaganda or campaigning only if you look at them very superficially. The thing is that the actions and statements of the president have concrete effects on both the state system and the political situation.”

“Haykakan Zhamanak” paints a grim economic outlook for Armenia in 2013 when the country will have to allocate almost $420 million to service its external debt. “This is about the same as the budget allocations for the defense sector based on today’s U.S. dollar exchange rate. But given the inevitability of the national currency’s devaluation, in dram terms more money will be spent on servicing the external debt than on defense purposes. This is the consequence of the ‘know how’ realized in 2009-2010 when the Tigran Sarkisian government began borrowing in large amounts and at high interest rates for the declared purpose of alleviating the consequences of the economic crisis, which tripled the size of the external debt.”